Posted on 04/07/2005 5:52:10 PM PDT by BenLurkin
WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's pump shock at every corner gas station, with prices well over $2 a gallon and still rising. And the government says you better get used to it. The Energy Department projects high gasoline prices and $50-plus crude oil at least through next year as producers struggle to keep up with demand.
Bush had better DUMP this "Social Security" Crap and concentrate on these gas proces or the weak minded voters will turn out the GOP in 2006 and then Bush and the GOP will NEVER get anything through!
Lots of people talking about this these days.
Any bets on where this levels off?
Or is this just the usual "summer is here, time to raise the cost of gas when people travel on vacation"?
You KNOW fuel prices are high when the DUmmies begin complaining.
Oil & Gas are simply reacting to supply and demand.
Take China for example, a few years ago China had only a few hundred thousand cars, now there are several million cars and growing fast.
China's economic growth has been tremendous, as has India, and other overseas economies. All this economic growth increases the demand for basic materials such as oil, steel, etc.
Now look at the U.S. Every other vehicle on the road is an SUV, often with only 1 person in it. All these gas guzzlers are also feeding the need for oil.
Then look at the enviro-wacko's and how they've prevented any refineries from being built in the U.S., and how they've blocked exploration and drilling in the U.S.
You have the perfect storm. Tremendous uptick in demand, while preventing any domestic exploration, drilling and refining.
Tragically, we need high gas prices to get people to stop acting so ridiculous in their choices of cars and to stimulate alternatives to gas powered vehicles.
With cheap gas, there's no incentive to change their ways, so now the change will be imposed by market forces.
Just my two cents.
sadly this isn't simply supply and demand. OPEC is in collusion out in the open.
If it goes up just another $1.43, it could reach the levels it was back when Pwes-i-dent Jimmah Cawtah had gas prices under "control"!
By the time reporters from the New York Times notice an economic trend, it's usually over. Have they noticed this, yet?
CRUDE PRICES DROP AS GAS FUTURES PLUMMET
By Brad Foss, AP Business Writer
Oil prices fell almost $2 a barrel Thursday, following the lead of gasoline futures. It was the fourth day in a row that prices had fallen, but analysts weren't ready to declare the end of a broader uptrend on energy markets.
After tumbling as low as $53.77 a barrel, light, sweet crude for May delivery settled $1.74 lower at $54.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures dropped nearly 11 cents before recovering somewhat to $1.568 a gallon, a decline of 9.12 cents.
In London, Brent crude futures fell $1.23 to $54.04 per barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange.
"The market was extremely overbought," said Ed Silliere, a broker at Energy Merchant Intermarket Futures in New York.
Mario Chavez, a broker at ABN Amro in New York, said the steady decline in prices in recent days triggered a huge wave of technical selling. "It was crazy," he said.
Gasoline futures are now 16 cents, or 9 percent, below the record settlement of $1.73 a gallon set last Friday.
You can read the rest of the story at
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&ncid=749&e=3&u=/ap/20050407/ap_on_bi_ge/oil_prices
(NY Times, requires registration or bug-me-not)
Well, the New York Times has finally noticed. Finally time to sell my oil stocks?
well, the SS plan is a good one.
But you are correct - the white house is clueless politically - these gas prices will send his approval rating to 40%, and at that level, you can forget about getting any major programs through or judges confirmed - the Dems aren't going to roll over for a president with a 40% approval number.
Thank God we didn't elect Al Gore .....can you imagine the price of gasoline today with Al Gore's let's tax it so they don't use it ideas. Prices would be approaching $3.25 /gallon.
". . . the white house is clueless politically - these gas prices will send his approval rating to 40%, and at that level, you can forget about getting any major programs through or judges confirmed - the Dems aren't going to roll over for a president with a 40% approval number."
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . . still a 'defeatist' thinker (I remember your posts from last year)!
FYI: As the (bogus) polls indicate now, and will continue to indicate in the future, it doesn't matter where the President's ratings 'fall' because the ratings for Congress (particularly Congressional Democrats) will fall further . . . perspective is everything! [Refer to the new Battleground 2006 Poll]
i agree, drill anwr. but everything i understand says its not the savior we need. we need alternative energy now. we have to drill there but we also have to really make a committment to other sources of energy right now so when it all goes south we have some back up. we need several different sources of energy all at once. we cannot count on oil forever and we are way behind the ball on this one.
yes, my posts predicting a 3-5% Bush election victory while other people here were calling for a landslide. I remember them too.
you can't possibly make the case that $3 gasoline is going to help the president.
all of that is fine, but they are all long term solutions. what we need right now is to bust the speculators out of this market. Getting oil back down to $42-45 is tolerable for the economy.
ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, and ConocoPhillips are in the top 7 of the Fortune 500. ExxonMobil is right behind Wal-Mart.
Perhaps I have confused you with another Freeper -- a Freeper who, beginning in April of last year (when the President's job approval ratings were at a 'low' for the election cycle), argued INCESSANTLY that the President faced impending defeat in November.
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